Brian Nankervis On New Show ‘Wish You Were Mine’

Wish You Were Mine is a new live music and storytelling show from the creators of RocKwiz. Hosted by Brian Nankervis and featuring the celebrated RocKwiz Orkestra, the show brings together two guest artists each night to explore and perform the songs they wish they’d written. Through conversation, humour, and live performance, audiences are invited into a warm, revealing journey through the creative inspirations and musical passions of some of Australia’s most loved performers. The evening culminates in a unique duet, the song both artists agree they “wish they’d written”, creating a one-off moment of musical magic. Brian talks to Hi Fi Way about the show.

Adelaide Fringe, new show, doesn’t get any better than that, does it?
Oh, absolutely! It’s my first Fringe show for about… well, I reckon fifteen years. I was there in 1986 with a show called “Let the Blood Run Free”. And I was there in 1992 for a show called Storming Glenelg by Tram. I did a couple of solo shows, maybe one in 1998. So, yeah, very excited to be back. I love the Fringe.

What was the spark to make you do a brand‑new show for the Fringe today?
Yeah, well, partly the spark has been over the years of doing Rockwiz, and that’s about twenty-two years now. We close the show with a cover, someone else’s song that the two artists come together and perform. I’m often slightly frustrated that we don’t get to discuss the background to the songs, why they chose that song, how they came to it, whether it’s an important part of their lives, whether they’ve wanted to write that song. But Rockwiz… I’m not sure if you’ve seen the show, but it’s fast and furious, there’s quizzing, there’s scoring, there’s Julia Zemiro being incredible. There’s not a lot of time for going deep and analysing or discussing.

Sometimes Julia’s very busy, so we did think a while ago, we should try and find something we could do when she’s not available, because she does a lot of things. We combined that idea with my skills as an interviewer. I’ve been doing ABC Radio now for eleven years, and I do lots of interview shows. So we put all that together.

We’ve come up with this show. Two artists. Each artist does two songs that they wish they’d written, and then they come together, which is a Rockwiz tradition, to close the show with a duet. We’ve got a couple of members of the Rockwiz Orchestra playing. So it’ll be me talking to the artist, one at a time, about the songs they’ve chosen, and then they play the song, then they play another one, and then they come together to close the show. It’s a really neat little structure that I think will be great. It’ll be very intimate, it’s in a beautiful theatre, the Spiegeltent which I think lends itself to conversation. I’m keen as I say, on Rockwiz, it’s fast and furious and we don’t always have as much time to talk as I’d like. So this is an opportunity to have some deep conversations about music, about songwriting, and then hear those songs in a really beautifully intimate environment.

Does it take a lot of research, particularly with the songs the artists might pick, or the discussion you’re looking to have, and trying to dig a little deeper?
There’s always a fair bit of research, but it is a subject that I’m very familiar with. I’m an incredibly enthusiastic music fan. And quite a few of the songs they’ve picked I’m pretty familiar with. Becky Cole has chosen a song by Emmylou Harris, and I’m a huge Emmylou Harris fan. She’s chosen a song by John Prine, I’m a big John Prine fan and they’re duetting… well, I won’t say, because we want to keep a few things as a surprise. But I feel like I’ve been researching this show for the last thirty or forty years. I’ve known Joe Camilleri pretty well, we’ve used him on Rockwiz a lot. One of the first bands I ever saw in a pub was Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons. I’ve done shows with Joe, compared shows, and he’s picked a Chuck Berry song and a Bob Dylan song. Again, areas of extreme interest for me.

Do you have to be flexible and let the interview take you where it wants to go, rather than being so structured or rigid that you don’t have room to move?
I hope, one of the hallmarks, sounds a bit pretentious, but as an interviewer on the radio, and I did a TV show for Working Dog called “Pictures of You”, where I interviewed people, I feel like I’m pretty relaxed about following up angles I didn’t necessarily expect. If someone says something that’s not in my notes or research, I’ll follow that up, because I think the audience can also sense when you’re flying blind, if you like.

Audiences feel comfortable when the conversation is free‑flowing and goes to unexpected places. I think also for an artist, to be interviewed and to be challenged or asked questions they don’t expect often elicits really interesting replies. All these artists — Becky Cole, Joe Camilleri, Vika and Linda Bull particularly — they’ve been around a long time, they’ve been interviewed hundreds of times, and I’m really keen to get some new stuff, rather than have them trotting out… not that they will, but sometimes I can feel artists say, “Okay, that worked well last time, so I’ll say that again.”

Is it tough trying to find that little hook or door opening that you can explore with your questions?
Well, it’s hard, but it’s also just research and time and watching interviews. Whenever I’m interviewing someone for the radio, I will Google and find interviews with them, and you can sometimes tell, okay, that was clearly something this person felt comfortable with and excited about.

Were the guests you’ve chosen for these three dates obvious choices to get the ball rolling for this show?
Well, partly. Becky Cole, we did a couple of Rockwiz shows in South Australia last year, one in Tanunda and one in Adelaide at the Thebbie. We hadn’t worked with Becky Cole live. We had her on an early episode of Rockwiz, but to have her join us for a live show was really exciting. She did this incredible cover of a Melissa Etheridge song called Somebody Bring Me Some Water. I remember talking with her about the song in the dressing room or over dinner, and she had really analysed that song. I thought, okay, Becky would be really great. Joe Camilleri, he’s picked a Chuck Berry song, and I’m a big Chuck Berry fan, so I’m pleased about that. Vika and Linda, they’ve been friends of the Rockwiz program pretty much since we started. We had Vika on with Dave Larkin in Series 1. We had Linda on with Glenn Tilbrook from Squeeze. Then they were part of, I think, Series 10, they were our backing singers for every artist and every duet. We love them, and audiences love them. If you’ve never seen Vika and Linda Bull, and to see them in the Spiegeltent, which is a small, intimate space, people will be knocked out. It’s great.

Does it still amaze you, the pull and impact that Rockwiz has and continues to have?
Yeah. I think partly the fact that we can do it as a live show. If it was just a TV show… we did eleven series, we were on SBS for twelve years, we had a really good run. But to be able to take it out into big theatres — the Thebbie, rooms that hold two thousand people — and as a live show it’s a lot looser and louder and a bit unhinged. Julia is a wonderful improviser, so she’s happy to follow angles we didn’t necessarily discuss and using audience members also gives it an improvised feel. You don’t know how they’re going to behave, and they’re often not people used to being on stage, so they don’t behave in ways that are normal on a stage. The live shows are great. We do national tours, festivals. We did the Tamworth Music Festival a couple of months ago. We’re about to do our tenth Good Friday show in a row at Hamer Hall in Melbourne. It’s been an incredible adventure and I feel like you and I probably share a fandom — it sounds like you’re a music fan, and I’m a music fan. Rockwiz has been a complete dream come true.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Tickets to Wish You Were Mine available from FringeTix…

Guests include
Tuesday 3 March
Beccy Cole and Kevin Mitchell (Bob Evans, Jebediah)

Wednesday 4 March
NIMA Artist of the Year 2025 Emily Wurramara and Joe Camilleri (The Black Sorrows, Falcons)

Thursday 5 March
Vika & Linda Bull